Together
by princette101
Summary: Shinichi and Kaito managed to bond over their unique experiences, but now they're ready to settle down into their lives as regular teenagers. They're college roommates, and as the weather outside gets colder, their relationship starts to heart. Shinichi's realizing that maybe he's seeing Kaito in a new light...


"Did you lock the door?"

"Yes, I locked the door. I always lock it. Go check, if you want."

"I'm already in bed! You go check it."

"But I'm also already in bed."

"Yeah but you're on the lower bunk, you're closer."

Unable to deal with this much longer, he just gave in. Shinichi fumbled his way through the dark until he got his phone. Using its flashlight, he picked his way through the mess that somehow always found itself on their room's floor. The last thing he wanted was to trip on someth-

"Ow!"

"You okay?"

Shinichi sat up on the floor, rubbing his toe that now throbbed with pain. It didn't look too bad, just a little red. Sure would hurt for a while though. Using his phone, he frowned down at the object that caused the fall. "Kaito, why are your textbooks in a stack…on the floor?"

"Hm. I don't think I did that. Are you sure they're not yours?"

"Why would I put my textbooks on the-" He sighed, with a glance at the phone's clock. Way too late to deal with this. Pushing the books to the side, he stood up and finished the journey to the door. "Would you look at that, it's locked. Like it always is."

Kaito didn't answer. He was already asleep at this point, judging from the steady breathing. He always managed to fall asleep quickly. Shinichi listened for a moment, making sure everything seemed to be normal, before searching his way back across the room and into his bed.

Staring up at the dark above him, Shinichi sighed, resting his arm on his forehead. Tomorrow was a Monday, the start to a new week. One of the last weeks of the quarter, thankfully-classes were finally almost over for the time being. 'Course that just means tests. Lots and lots of tests, papers, assignments, all about complicated things he doesn't understand.

He understands why it's difficult, of course, if that made the situation any better. Sure, university is a rough transition from high school, but going from high school back to elementary school to high school again and then to university was a far higher hurdle to jump. But he made it. He did it. Running his hands across his body, his true body in its correct state, he couldn't help but grin in the dark.

It took so long. Too long. It's over now, he won, that awful chapter of his life is over. There are still those consequences, the good and the bad. The Black Organization isn't defeated, not exactly, not yet. The core of it, sure, that's been dealt with, he got that satisfaction. Since it was so large though, international agencies are still working on shutting its operations down. It probably would take him a while to finally feel safe, regardless.

With her research, equipment, and everything else back, Haibara managed to make a lasting antidote, one without many physical side effects. To his surprise, she didn't take it herself but instead chose to live her childhood again. In a way, he was glad of her choice; she could have friends, protect the Detective Boys they both had grown so fond of. He managed to regain his body thanks to her; just in time for his third year of high school.

And he only made it through that because of Ran. Of course, once the main threat of danger had come and gone, he told her about everything. Her reaction…after the confusion and anger had faded was one of relief. Her feelings, she said, were complicated. About him, and the whole situation. Regardless of those emotions she felt, she helped him lie, one last time, to her father, to Sonoko, to all their classmates and teachers, to explain his absence. She helped him apply to university and once the results of their acceptance came through, they hugged and cheered and it was just like old times. Their friendship held strong throughout it all, thankfully-she and Sonoko were a couple doors down, also still holding onto each other's friendship. Ran was there for him, he was there for her, and that was all they needed.

Then there was his roommate. Kaito Kuroba. Formerly known as Kaito Kid.

Even now, so long after that reveal, Shinichi had to shake his head. He never would have guessed that he would be living with someone that was once such a show off. Not many people knew about Kaito Kid's true identity, and the story behind it all. He suspected Kaito told some friends but he didn't have any specifics about it. Kaito wanted to keep things quiet and Shinichi wanted to make sure that they both their privacy. They definitely were the ones that needed it.

So much happened between them, they were on a first name basis after all. Although, taking down not one but two secret criminal organizations would do that. In return for Kaito's skills in cracking some security measures, Shinichi promised to help him destroy Pandora; and they did. It worked out, and Kaito found out the truth behind what he had been looking for. He didn't like talking about what he found out much, and Shinichi managed to swallow his urge to ask, for the most part. He probably would never get that full story, but he knew enough.

They were together now, at least. For a while anyway; they were roommates after all. And they also had a couple talks about their experiences. They didn't quite understand each other, of course, no one really could. But they each understood the feeling of being someone else, and the consequences that came with it. They each had to be someone else, and no matter the reasoning, that still felt the same. Confusing, and disconcerting sort of scary at times. They really had a lot more in common then Shinichi would have guessed….

Kaito still turned out to be a crappy roommate though.

Always snoring, leaving the fridge door ajar, locking himself out of the room, doing homework in the middle of the night and about a thousand other things. Those were bad enough on their own, but together? Combined with that devil-may-care grin of his? It was insufferable. They were in it together, of course, they had to be. Sometimes though, it felt like things could go south very fast.

Those thoughts, swirling around in his busy mind, turned into dreams as Shinichi drifted off to sleep. A long, uninterrupted sleep. Free from fear, distraction, all of it. Blissful, one would normally think. And so would Shinichi, normally. But not when that sweet sleep ended at nine-thirty in the morning, when his alarm should have woken him up two hours earlier. This happened before. Way too many times. Without fail, Kaito would manage to turn off the wrong alarm clock at least once a month.

"Kaito, I swear, I'll hide all your pencils, replace them with highlighters, and then you'll be sorry!" Fuming, Shinichi stumbled across the room, trying to comb his hair, get a sweater on, and eat a granola bar all at the same time. The bastard wasn't even in the room at the time, but he muttered threats anyway, the whole way through his now hectic morning routine.

One commute later; delayed a bit by the sudden snow of the night before, Shinichi managed to slide into his second class of the day, with a couple minutes to spare. Too exhausted to take his coat off, he just sank into his usual seat and sighed deeply.

"Rough morning?" Sonoko quipped, nudging Akako beside her, who gazed over the situation with her classic cold and calculating look in her eyes. "Hey, pay up, I told you he was going to make it."

As the girls bickered over the conditions of their bet, Shinichi glanced at the empty seat to his left. Usually, Kaito would be there by now. He was looking forward to giving that idiot a piece of his mind. "Hey, Sonoko," He interrupted the bickering, intent on finding answers. "Did Kaito text or anything?"

She had a sly look on her face, but then again, she always had a sly look on her face. "No, I didn't hear anything from him. Did you, Akako?"

"Mm, no. Haven't talked to him since the movie on Friday." Akako didn't look at him, instead focused on getting her notebook ready.

As they settled in for class, Shinichi began to think. Not about the class, Global History, or even that late assignment he had for it, but of Kaito. That smug face of his remained stuck in Shinichi's mind, throughout all his classes. No one, not even Aoko or Hakuba had heard from Kaito. Or at least, they told him that they hadn't heard anything. During all his interactions, Shinichi felt as though something was off. He couldn't figure out what it was, but something told him that Kaito had some sort of plan going on…

He realized what that plan was, the moment he opened the door to their room. He ate enough sweets when he was Conan to recognize the smell of a cake. A vanilla sponge cake, to be exact, with what seemed to be strawberries. Quietly, he slipped off his shoes, and shed his coat, before peeking around to see what was going on.

"Hm hm, cake cake, yeah it's cake cake time," Kaito sang without a tune, using a plastic bag to carefully pipe flowers on a small misshapen cake. "It's going to taste so good, going to taste so good, yeah."

Shinichi wasn't sure what made Kaito look in his direction; maybe he breathed a little too loud or it was just the instinct of a former thief. No matter the reason, the consequence was the same. Kaito yelped, tripped forward, and squashed the bag of icing with his elbow, causing the contents to spray across the floor…on the rug, to be exact.

"I uh…I'll get some paper towels for that." Shinichi fled the scene to hide his laughter. Once in the bathroom, however, he laughed until his ribs hurt. Calming himself down, he grabbed some paper towels and wet them, before heading back to the room.

Kaito stood now, scowling at the mess, like that would make it go away. "You scared me, lurking in the shadows like that," He complained while snatching some of the paper towels and kneeling to start picking up the mess. "I thought you would be back later."

"My professor's office hours were cancelled. Wait, did you skip class for this?" Shinichi winced as he accidentally wiped frosting on his pants. His nice pants.

With a yawn, Kaito shrugged. "It was just review sessions and stuff, right? So, I thought I should make you a cake!"

"Okay…but why?"

"It's to celebrate the first time we met, remember, the black pearl?"

Shinichi nodded. That one would be a hard case to forget about. "Of course I remember, I remember almost everything about my cases. But that was in April. And it is December."

Kaito groaned, giving up on the frosting. "You're such a stickler. I thought about it in December, I swear! Aw, whatever, c'mon, let's eat!"

That's how Shinichi found himself, sitting on his bed, beside his roommate/friend/former enemy, eating a slice of cake using a wet piece of paper towel, smeared in frosting, like a plate.

"I could have sworn we had actual plates in the cupboard, you know," Shinichi mumbled between his bites, trying not to get crumbs all over his bedspread.

Swallowing before showing a smile with teeth covered with frosting, Kaito flapped a hand in response to that. "Oh, those had a little…accident. Involving the floor, and gravity, and well, you get the idea."

"You broke them? All the plates? The shared plates?"

Kaito scooted closer, resting his head in the nook of Shinichi's shoulder, ready for some fun. "Are you going to tell on me, detective? I'll get new ones, I promise! Oh, please don't tell the residence supervisor, I need this room. You wouldn't do that to me, or would you, my dear detective?"

Shinichi stuffed the rest of his cake into his mouth, to avoid answering that remark, but then started to choke. Swallowing rapidly, he tried to breathe, but with Kaito still resting on him, things didn't feel right. He was hot, he was cold, he felt shivers all the way up his spine, his face burned, it felt as though his heart and the rest of the cake was lodged in his throat.

"Well!" He said, getting up with a start, and flinging open the window. "The heating still hasn't been fixed huh? Ah, I need to do some reading for tomorrow!"

He sat himself at his desk and pretended to be engrossed in his history book, while he heard Kaito starting to move around him. Hunching over his book, Shinichi tried to force his mind to focus on the words, but they kept blurring together. Still, he all but pressed his nose to the page, just to look busy.

"I guess I better see if I can meet with my study group," Kaito said, opening the fridge to put the rest of the cake in. He didn't sound fazed at all, both about what he did and Shinichi's abrupt reaction to it. "Probably not going to be late, but I might get dinner out."

Shinichi grunted in response and held his breath until he heard the click of the lock. He waited until he was pretty sure Kaito wasn't coming back before he let it out. With a deep sigh, he rolled his chair back, onto the rug, not caring if frosting got stuck in the wheels.

He could still taste the cake on his tongue, his neck was still warm from where Kaito's head had rested upon it. He touched his lips with a finger, remembering all those times Kaito did that to him. Sometimes, in playful teasing, sometimes, for comfort, sometimes, out of desperation. Just…sometimes. He liked it, all of the antics Kaito brought, usually, much to his surprise. He liked the closeness, the comfort of having company. He felt so alone before, but now, they were together, for better or worse.

"Shit!" He swore and scrambled when he realized the chair started to tip over. Gravity had other plans, as it often does, and sent him crashing to the floor. Luckily, he landed on the rug. Unluckily, he landed in a spot where the frosting had been.

After making sure he was still in one piece and cursing himself, Shinichi picked up the chair, and after rolling it back to his desk, sat down. His hair was sticky, but a shower would have to wait. He had some Physics problems to do. All thoughts of Kaito vanished as he opened his workbook, replaced by facts, equations, and numbers. Lots and lots of numbers.

Although he didn't think about it, directly at least, a part of him knew that something felt different. He felt differently about Kaito, that was for sure, a feeling he didn't feel for a quite a while. Intense commitment, joined by the desire for pleasure and company. A special feeling, one that felt overpowering and delightful and scary and not what he thought it used to feel like.

His heart felt warmer now. And it warmed a lot more throughout the week. When Kaito came back from a shower, with his hair still damp and curled. When, during his sleep, Kaito's arm slipped over the edge, resting just in front of Shinichi's face. When Kaito was hopping around the room, shouting something about all the ants in their room.

"Wait, ants?" Shinichi propped himself up on his bed, staring at the ants that were swarming their rug. "How long have those been there?"

Kaito sighed noisily, gesturing to the ants in question. "Where have you been for the past five minutes? Mars? I told you, I just got back and there they are! Ants!"

He cautiously stood over the rug, looking at the ants closely, seeing them carry off little white specks. "Oh. I told you we didn't get rid of all that frosting. They must have smelled the sugar. And now we have ants in the room. Great. I'll go get someone."

"Ah, no need for that. Just get me red pepper flakes, ants hate those."

Luckily, the kitchen had been recently stocked-that or this was a really old packet of red pepper flakes. Still, Shinichi grabbed it, and let Kaito handle sprinkling it throughout the rug. As they watched, Shinichi started to notice that it didn't look like the ants were going anywhere.

"Ugh," Kaito groaned, dragging his hands down his cheeks in clear distress. "They're eating the pepper! They're eating the pepper. It wasn't pepper I was thinking of! Oh shit, they're angry. Don't they look angry to you? Oh, they're angry. Watch them, okay? I need cinnamon, that was it! Cinnamon!"

As Kaito rushed out of the room, on the hunt for some cinnamon, clearly, Shinichi just glanced at the ants and smiled. Not because of the ants, he was rather annoyed at the ants being there, in fact. No, he smiled because of Kaito. Because of how quickly that guy's intelligence shifted-he saw Kaito's grades, he was smart enough for school, and obviously, Kaito pulled off some remarkable feats during his heist. But then again..he confused cinnamon with red pepper flakes .

"How can I even think about liking this guy?" He said to the ants. "On the other hand, how can I not like him? He made me a cake!"

He stopped talking to the ants, both because Kaito came back with a jar of cinnamon and because he didn't want to make a habit of talking to ants about his issues with romance. Once again. His thoughts were derailed, as they sprinkled the cinnamon on the rug, watching the ants slowly start to leave, abandoning their sugary prizes.

Later, Shinichi insisted that Kaito use a vacuum, rather than water, to get rid of the cinnamon. Because of his upcoming tests, Shinichi started to read over his notes. Or, well, he tried to do. It wasn't the noise of the vacuum that distracted him, or even Kaito's whistling over top the noise. That, he could block out. What he couldn't block out was the memory of Kaito's smile-he had been lucky enough to see it so many times. Yes, Kaito smiled an awful lot, but every single time, it felt like the first time all over again…all of this made difficult to memorize dates.

"Ah! Shinichi! Why are your socks on the floor, oh come on, we talked about this! The vacuum! Shinichi! Your socks!"

Startled by the shrieking voice, Shinichi's pen dragged across the page onto his desk. "What?" He half gasped, half exclaimed as he saw Kaito wrestling with the vacuum, trying to yank out a pair of socks. Noticing the vacuum was in fact, still on, and that Kaito was in a fair bit of danger, he yanked the cord out the sock.

The whine of the vacuum died out, and Kaito sighed dramatically, grinning up at his savior. "You saved my life once again, Shinichi. Or at least, you saved your socks."

"Uh, no problem. It's fine."

"Hey, are we still on for going shopping later?" Kaito asked, trying to yank the socks out. "I've got gifts to buy, and the clock is tickin'."

Shinichi nodded, muttering something about just having to write a lab report, while burying himself in a notebook, to hide his blushing cheeks. He didn't want Kaito to see them-who knows how easy he was to read these days.

Later, once the socks had been rescued, and the lab report had been finished, they started out. With goals in mind, they chattered about their plans all the way to the station, and while they were waiting for the train. At first, it was only Kaito talking, but Shinichi started to warm up and he chimed in with a fair amount of conversation. Save for a crowded train car, where their noses were brushing each other, the first part of their outing was without incident.

But when they were heading down the street, planning out the stops they wanted to make, and the things they needed for their room, something changed. Specifically, when they passed the sparkling window display of a local jewelry store. Shinichi didn't notice it much, and kept walking, talking about the types of decorations they could find. He noticed the lack of Kaito beside him almost right away.

Panicking a little, he spun around and spotted Kaito's bright scarf, and Kaito himself, standing in front of the jewelry store's window. He jogged up to his friend, noticing the fierce look in his eyes, as he pressed his face against the glass. Shinichi looked at the display, hands stuffed into his coat's pockets. He didn't know what to say here, in this situation, so he waited.

"Ah, my bad." Kaito laughs weakly, pushing away with a flap of his hand. "It's nothing. You were uh, sayin'?"

"It's okay, you know. To think about it. I know it must be hard." Shinichi's eyes are fixed on the glittering gems laid out on velvet.

He didn't think it would be right to press Kaito on the specifics of the situation. So he went for a more personal approach to the discussion. "I still go to the children's sections of department stores, you know. And watch Kamen Yaiba. And…and all sorts of other things."

Kaito nodded, simply recognizing all those things. He had been there for the bad things and the not so bad things. Some of the worst of it all, he had been there to see; the expression Shinichi had when he saw his old friends from elementary school walk their way to school…without him. All the moments where Shinichi said or did the wrong thing in public and got all those looks from strangers. A night they spent together, with Shinichi on the verge of sobbing, talking about he felt like he wasn't a teenager, or a child, or an adult or anything. He was on the edge of it, trapped in limbo with all that stress.

Kaito took him by the arm then, and he did it again. "I have gifts to buy, c'mon, let's go. I need to know what action figure you want, after all. Oops. There goes the surprise."

"Do that, and there will be a fish in your bed." Shinichi let himself joke, and smile, as they headed back out. It felt good to acknowledge the bad things about their shared experiences, yeah, but sometimes it felt just as good to laugh.

"Ugh, you're cruel."

"Gotta be cruel to be kind."

The rest of the trip was just as lighthearted-they laughed at all the gaudy decorations before buying some of them, along with a box or three of tiny lights to string around. They got something to eat. Kaito performed some magic for a crowd of adoring children, not caring if his lunch got a bit cold. They each managed to sneak away for a moment, clearly buying things for the other.

The day came to a close with the streaks of the sunset lining the sky. Tired, but happy, they headed back, loaded down by their packages and bags. They were a fair bit quieter on the way back, but it was a comfortable sort of feeling. They stumbled into their room, laughing for the sake of it, and strung up their lights and turned them on.

"Wow," Kaito rolled his neck, looking at the effect they had when the main lights were off. "It kinda feels like a dance, doesn't it? One of those fancy sorts of parties…"

Something came over Shinichi, like the gods of love were whispering into his bones. Before he could stop himself from being so bold, he extended his hand, with a bit of a bow. "If that's the case, then, may I have this dance?"

Kaito didn't reply right away, causing Shinichi to sheepishly take back his hand but then Kaito grabbed it firmly. With his hand on Shinichi's waistline, Kaito started to lead him around their tiny room. After a couple moments of hesitations, they started to go a bit faster, adding spins to it, and most importantly, they started to smile.

They both had stress, about the past and the future. They had work to do, both socially and academically. Realistically, they shouldn't be doing this for all sorts of reasons. But in that tiny, dark room, lit only by their grins and the twinkling lights strewn around, they didn't care. They didn't think about the past or the future, they were enjoying themselves in the present.

Shinichi misstepped at one point, causing him to fall forward, head against his dance partner's chest. Adapting to the situation, Kaito smoothly shifted his hands and held him in a tight embrace. After a moment or so, they could hear their heartbeats syncing with the other.

No moment can last forever, no matter how sweet it might be. They weren't interrupted, no one walked in on them, their phones didn't ring. Dances, even the ones without music, come to an end. They slipped away from each other, too shy, all of a sudden, to acknowledge what happened, or what they might have been feeling about it.

Sitting at their desks for the rest of the evening, turning the lights back on, they both felt that warmth in their hearts. A clear difference from the warmth of the room, thanks to the broken heating; this feeling lit a fire from the inside, fed by all the thoughts they had about the other. Throughout the evening, they snuck quick looks at the other, trying to gauge if this sudden burst of feelings were being returned. For that night, all was well, and happy, and just not so bad.

Monday brought about an end to all of that, as Mondays often do.

Everything would have been fine, it should have been fine. The glaring red marks on the grading report for his latest lab assignment showed otherwise. He studied for that thing, he prepared for it, but yet…it didn't work. He felt so angry, not at anyone else but himself which just made him feel worse. He went through the day in a blur, just going through the motions of being okay, when he really wasn't.

It didn't feel like other disappointments he had before. This time, he really thought he got it right, that things were getting better and that he had found out the formula to getting things right. Turns out the only thing that went right is his ability to make everything go wrong.

He kicked at a snowbank on his walk back to the dorm. It didn't make him feel any better. But it did make his sock wet. Once again, he managed to make a bad situation, even worse.

Some small part of him tried to tell him that this wasn't so bad, that he managed worse, and that is was just one assignment that he could fix. But that would require getting the energy to fix things, and right now all he wanted to do was take a nap. A long, restful, relaxing, nap. He couldn't screw that up, right?

Well, that might have been true. If Kaito didn't screw it up in the best way.

Jolted out of his sleep from the sound of the door opening, Shinichi just groaned and buried his face in the pillow. He wasn't ready to get up just yet. Or ever. But definitely not right now. He heard Kaito humming under his breath, taking off his shoes, hanging up his coat by his bag; all part of the routine, really.

"Ah. I see you finally found a way to meld with your bed. Lucky, I've been trying for years."

Sighing, Shinichi sat up, running a hand through his hair, pretending not to notice the concern behind Kaito's joke and his eyes. "Look, I'm really not up for any antics today."

"But that's the best time for antics!" Kaito plopped down on the bed, causing Shinichi's heart to skip a beat. "Seriously, though, what's the matter with you? You seem…"

"Sad? Disappointed? The epitome of failure? Take your pick."

Kaito patted his knee. "I was going to go with upset, but you know, if you think those work better, sure. C'mon, what is it?"

"I got that lab report back. And I failed it, okay? Just like the other fifteen million assignments I've managed to hand in this year! I used to be smart! I could do things like math and history and all of that. I could write exams and essays and do well on them. Really well! But now…" Feeling a balloon, Shinichi deflated with a sigh, collapsing back onto his pillow.

"Sheesh. I thought your dog died or something, you had me going there." When the joke didn't land, Kaito sighed as well. "It's that rough, huh?"

"Extremely."

"Alright, two options, do you want help or distraction?" When Shinichi didn't bother with an answer, Kaito gave one from him. "Ah, great choice, both is wonderful, distraction first, come on, let's go, get your shoes on. And a hat, it's cold."

Kaito managed to drag Shinichi out of bed, quite literally, and within a couple of minutes, they were outside. A couple more minutes later, with Shinichi complaining the whole way, Kaito presented him with their destination; what appeared to have once been a playground, tucked away from the road with some deserted buildings flanking it.

"Here? What are we doing here?" Shinichi exclaimed, his breath turning to smoke in the cold air. His head was spinning, his heart didn't know what to think, his feelings were more of a tangled mess than ever. "This is hopeless, I…I can't even figure out myself right now and you…you're just an enigma."

"An enigma, huh? Well, I know how to have a good time at least, even with a little Mr Grumpy with me." With that, Kaito dragged Shinichi over to the far part of the playground, to a swing set.

Brushing the snow off the seats of the swings, Kaito sat on one, and he started to swing. Or, as Shinichi would put it, he started to come alive. With his legs in unison, propelling him forward, Kaito looked like he was cutting through that cold winter sky with just grace, it took Shinichi's breath away. Maybe it was just the emotions of the day getting to him, but when he saw the ease and the joy on Kaito's face, it made him start thinking about what their future could be like, together.

An impulse, really, nothing more than that; a fleeting moment of hope and desire. He knew better than to think like that, he knew better to hope for something like…that.

"Hey!" Kaito shouted, shattering Shinichi's conflicting thoughts. "Bet you can't go higher than this, Detective boy."

Filled with the urge to compete Shinichi just grinned in response, hopping on to the neighbouring swing. "You sure this thing isn't about to collapse on us?" He asked, dubious about this rattling structure. "We're awfully big for it, aren't we?"

"Aw, enough with the questions, you're never going to win if you can't keep your mouth shut."

Soon, they were laughing. Funnily enough, they always managed to laugh together. That's what made things interesting, really. They swung until their ribs started to ache with their laughs and their legs started to cramp from the exercise. Feeling the exertion, they called their contest a tie and slowed down to a leisurely swinging speed.

"Well," Shinichi breathed loudly, trying to get hold of how to breathe again. "You sure know how to deliver on a distraction, don't you?"

"I do, don't I? But I think you're going to need something else before I can call you fully distracted. Just watch a pro."

Shinichi watched, amused, as Kaito hopped off his swing, and managed to pick his way through the icy surface of the playground. He clambered up the rickety-looking metal structure, sat on the highest point, opened his mouth, and screamed.

There really wasn't anything else you could call it. He didn't shout; there were no words behind it. Just a long shriek that managed to fit into the general din of the city. Amidst the sounds of the passerby, and businesses, and traffic, there was this long piercing shriek. It shot Shinichi through the bones-he heard many, many, screams in his lifetime, but this? This was far from anything he ever heard.

"What are you doing?" He exclaimed, fighting his way to get to his inane roommate. "You're going to…people are going to think you're murdered! What are you thinking, you're just going to get us in trouble and I can't have that and…"

Shinichi gazed up at Kaito, at that silhouette perched on a way too fragile railing amidst a snowy winter's day. He didn't have a clue what that guy was thinking, sure, but he knew he wanted to be a part of it. So, with a climb, Kaito wasn't alone up there anymore.

"Great view, isn't it?" Kaito asked, innocence in his voice like he didn't just spend the last minute screaming his head off. "I love it up here."

With a sigh, Shinichi asked a question he had, one of many, and probably the wrong one to ask. "How did you find this place anyway? Doesn't seem like a hot spot."

"Oh. Before you moved in, I was a little antsy about things. Never was the best with transitions or whatever. I didn't want to talk to anyone about it, and I didn't want to think about it, and I needed someplace to just let loose."

"What, you scream often?"

"Well, not often, no, I don't have to. Not anymore, anyway." Kaito rubbed away the snow on the railing beside him, eyes downcast. "It was a trick my parents taught me. Life is worth screaming about sometimes, and you gotta let it out at some point. Or else you explode. Better not to explode."

Kaito stretched his arms as if he was settling into his perch. "I don't think many people go here. So, I figured it's a good place to do some screaming every once in a while, you know? Wait, is this all really weird?"

"Oh, yeah, it's definitely pretty messed up." Shinichi hesitated, but then scooted a little closer. "It makes sense though. I can really see how it could help. But how do you…do it?"

"What, how do you scream? You just…I don't know, think about things, all the things are going wrong, and you just poured your heart out into your voice. Be careful though it can really strain your throat. C'mon, give it a go."

After a bit more prodding, Shinichi relented, stood up, gazed over the bustling city, and closed his eyes. He thought about his grades at first, yeah, but then that spiralled into the things he was really worried about; the thing, really, the person.

Kaito, of course.

Because, damn it all, his heart was telling him things that it wanted and although it couldn't work for so many reasons, he was starting to want it too. He wanted it badly now, to call Kaito his, and to be Kaito's. To be partners, loyal to each other, together for as long as this feeling lasted.

He didn't cry, much to his relief. But he did scream. Long, hard, loud, everything just came gushing out into a siren of sound, echoing off the long-forgotten metal of this playground, reflecting everything he felt about himself and this awful situation his heart put him in.

Shinichi gripped the metal with his gloved hands, taking in huge gulps of the cold air, chilling his bones. "That…was a lot." He gasped, opening his eyes, to see the city still before him, and Kaito right by his side. Two pleasant sights, if he was being honest.

"Yeah, that was good! Or well, bad, you had a lot to scream about there, didn't you?" Kaito shrugged, patting him on the shoulder. "Feeling a little better?"

"Sure, you could call it that." Shaking off the remaining cobwebs of his thoughts, Shinichi looked at Kaito's expressive eyes with a relieved grin. "Wait, if that was the distraction, then what's the help supposed to be?"

Kaito beckoned for him to climb down, which he obliged. The wind was getting colder, it was getting late, and they clearly had more to do. Only when they were on the crowded street, did Kaito reveal the next stage of his plan.

"Tutoring. With me. I'm uh, pretty good at all this, I'm in a lot of your classes, and it'll help me too, you know?" Rubbing at his neck, Kaito looked the closest to bashful that Shinichi had ever seen him. "If that's good with you, don't want to be pushy."

"You literally dragged me out in the freezing cold to scream on the top of a safety hazard and now you're wondering if you're being pushy? I need all the help I can get at this point. If it's not too much trouble, well, sure."

Kaito smiled at his shoes. "You've really changed, didn't you? You're not that show-off teen genius anymore?"

"Yeesh. There goes my reputation. Don't go spreading this around, will you? I still need to maintain some of my image?" Shinichi shrugged, burying his chin in his scarf. It was cold…and he didn't want Kaito to see him blush just then.

The rest of the semester, in between classes, sleep, and food, they spent every second of time together. In fact, they passed each other notes in class, stayed up much too late, and worked while they ate. Kaito's tutoring was far more intensive than what Shinichi had ever experienced. And they had some fun together in between too. When Shinichi brought home a reasonable grade on a class quiz, Kaito got so excited he tried picking Shinichi up to swing him around the room. Of course, that ended up with them on the floor, nursing some light injuries, but they were laughing regardless.

Sometime, in that final stretch of their first semester together, both of them finally put the pieces together. They really did like being together, they liked each other in a way neither of them ever expected. And they were okay with it, coming to terms with this attraction individually, but whenever they imagined confessing this to the subject of their affection? They choked, both emotionally and sometimes literally.

They thought about it, of course, they thought about it. Every late night they talked to each other in the dark, just seeing the other's voice in the air. Every time they share a hot drink together, amidst the coldness outside their warm room (usually those times were always spent discussing how their heating was never going to get fixed). Every smile, every look, every gaze, every brief touch they had, they were thinking about saying it. Saying that they liked being together and that they wanted to be able to be together, to hold and be held and…they never managed to get the words out. Not yet.

The final days of class came and went; with everyone being abuzz with news of their plans for the holidays. Shinichi knew that Kaito was staying in the dorm for a couple of days, just like he was, and that's why he grinned when he came back to the building. Because he saw one window on their floor bursting with warm light, and that window belonged to their room.

Clattering up their stairs, up that familiar route he already took so many times, he burst into their room and found what he was looking for. Kaito, sitting at his desk, reading over some sort of extra credit assignment, before looking up with a welcoming smile.

"Oh, I'm glad you're here," Shinichi said breathlessly, trying to take off his coat, scarf, hat and boots all at once. He managed to get it off and scrambled for his desk drawer, producing a neatly wrapped box. "I can't wait to give you this."

Kaito looked at it for a moment, before setting down his assignment and pulling out another neatly wrapped box. "I guess we're doing this…early then? Eh, works for me. You just couldn't wait huh? Wait, open mine first though, okay?"

With a mock sigh, Shinichi set his gift down, to take Kaito's. He didn't know what to expect from this little box, couldn't deduce a thing about it. Which was good; this surprise was bound to be good. "Oh, you didn't." He said, producing a small plush toy from the box. "Kamen Yaiba, really?"

"Do you like it? Him, I mean. Thought it might be a more pleasant reminder of some things."

Shinichi smiled, squishing the toy in his hand. "Thanks. I appreciate the thought about it. And uh, it looks like we had the same idea, for once. Here you go."

He held that little toy in his hand, squeezing it anxiously, as Kaito painstakingly removed the wrapping from his own little box, opened the lid, pulled back the paper to reveal his own gift, his own keepsake for a turbulent past.

"It's me!" He said, dropping the box on his desk to cup the small doll in his hands. "Oh, it's Kaito Kid! It even has a little jewel, this is too cute. Did you really get me a Kaito Kid doll? Wait, how did you get this at a department store?"

"Hey, who said I got it from a department store?"

"But…" Kaito held the doll up to his chest, based on instinct. "When we were shopping together, I could have sworn you bought my gift then."

Shinichi tapped the side of his forehead, with a wink. "I know when someone's tailing me, and I know to mislead. Put those together, and you get some awesome gift shopping skills. Seriously though, you like it?"

"Pretty hard not to," Kaito scoffed, admiring it closely. "I mean, it's me. As a little chibi doll! Well, it's part of me anyway. Why…why this though? I mean, you could have just gotten, I don't know, a hat, or something."

Feeling the blood rush through his veins, Shinichi knew he had to tell the truth now. He placed his gift on his desk, so he wouldn't use it as a stress ball. "I wanted you to have something to hold when things got hard. When…I'm not there for you to hold, I mean."

After nearly dropping his gift, Kaito followed Shinichi's lead and put it on his desk, before stepping a bit closer. His heart felt far too fast like it was about to fall from his chest. "You're as cryptic as ever, detective," He tried to sound cool, collected like he wasn't going to faint at any moment. "What do you even mean-"

He found out. When Shinichi grabbed his face and kissed his lips. And Shinichi found out about something when Kaito grabbed him right back and kissed harder. They broke their kiss, pressed their foreheads together, and didn't say a word. Just by looking in the other's eyes, they knew they were on the same page now.

They knew they wanted to be together.


End file.
